scott411
11th July 2006, 08:20
time for another Race Report,
this time the toughest Motorcycle Race in the Country, the Yamaha Tawarewa 100, this is a 100 mile (160km) race over four laps, it takes approx 4 hours for the top guys to complete
This time i did not take my RMZ450, as i am not the fittest man around and hanging onto a 450 for 4 hours plus is hard work,
So i talked my old man into lending me his brand new 06 KDX200, some say its out dated but i love riding them and i can hang on to them for 4 hours alot eaiser than a big four stroke, and it needed a good run in anyway.
I did a few mods to the KDX to help me out, first was the PRo CIrcuit pipe and muffler which Dad already had on the bike, i removed the ari box snorkal and enlarged the whole on top of the airbox, i rejetted the biek (one size smaller on the main and pilots jets,
I then fitted some heavy .42 kg/mm Race Tech fork springs to stiffen up the front end, fitted soem pro taper se bars, and MR Motorcycles alloy mount kit to get rid of the rubber bar mounts, and last of all fitted some M402 bridgestone tyres and heavy duty tubes, total price for brand new bike and mods at full retail is approx $8200, still a cheap new race bike
If you have never seen the start of a Tawarewa 100 it is a pretty amazing affair, 320 riders sitting in 2 lines, bikes dead, then the shot gun goes and everyone is off at once, the first 3km winds though about 4 large maize paddocks in a mx style race before hitting farm land and into the bush proper,
The KDX fired up first kick off the line but got swolled by alot of bikes on the run to the first corner, i was pretty hesitant in corner one as this can often be a place for large pile ups, i reackon i was about 60-70th though the first corner, i used my mx skills to get a few places though the corners of the maize paddocks but were losing places on the straights to the bigger bike, (at this point i was crusing the advent of electric start 450's as a couple of years ago all these guys had to kick them a few times to get them going and you could get away on a nimble 2 strokes),
as i hit the bush this is where the real race starts, their are quick guys coming though and some slower guys holding up poeple lead to some big pile ups, i managed to aviod all these and make up alot of places in the 1st 20km, the KDX was great going down the hills and though the tight trees, but on the big hills it was losing to the four strokes, it wasn;t a problem if you had a run but when in traffic you had to wait untill the four stroke in front got on the gas to get on it yourself which wasn;t ideal,
any way at the end of the 1st lap i had got up to about 35th overall, i was third in my class (0-200 2 stroke) i stopped for fuel and some food, we have a pretty good pit setup and my cousin BRad had some dopwn to help, we fueled up and maid up a couple of places in the pits, both my work buddies had dnf'd at this stage, Kyle on his KX250 ran out of gas with 2km to go while right behiund me, and my business partner Craig had cooked his 250F after gettig a bad start and getting the radiators filled up with dirt and mud, this was quite a comman problem.
any way lap two was uneventfull, i kept passsing riders and no one got buy me, i was felling good and making up time, at the end of lap two i ptted again to find the guy who was 2nd in my class had a flat tyre and was changing it, this put me up to second and i was in good shape,
Lap 3 and i started catching the big four strokes, my plan wa working as these guys on big 450's looked stuffed and where just letting me by, but at the end of the 3rd lap i was cramping up pretty bad, but thier was no way i was going to give up, so another quick stop and i got out with a lap to go with a cheer from my mates who had already finished thier race (novice and veteran riders do 2 or 3 laps depending on their class)
so the 4th lap i got out, i got passed by a few quick guys coming though but also passed a few back for my self, this lap is pretty hard as you ride by yourself most the time and the track is pretty rough by this stage, and i was hurting bad, i could not stand up for long as i would cramp up but io could not sit down for long as i would cramp up then as well, any way, after 40km that seemed to take forever i came out on the last paddock with a guy on a crf450x right on my tail, he must of backed his luck to pass me on the straights, he got by me on 3 different straights but i got him back under brakes every time to beat him to the finish,
i ended up 25th out of 320 riders and 2nd in my class (0-200cc 2 Strokes)
in a time of 4.06.12
i was pretty happy after that, its tuesday morning (the race was staurday) and my legs still hurt, its a fun race to do but its pretty hard
overall was one by Damian King, from Peter Broxholme from Michael Cotter,
this is a pretty cool race to watch and next year will be the 30th running
cheers and till next time
Scott
this time the toughest Motorcycle Race in the Country, the Yamaha Tawarewa 100, this is a 100 mile (160km) race over four laps, it takes approx 4 hours for the top guys to complete
This time i did not take my RMZ450, as i am not the fittest man around and hanging onto a 450 for 4 hours plus is hard work,
So i talked my old man into lending me his brand new 06 KDX200, some say its out dated but i love riding them and i can hang on to them for 4 hours alot eaiser than a big four stroke, and it needed a good run in anyway.
I did a few mods to the KDX to help me out, first was the PRo CIrcuit pipe and muffler which Dad already had on the bike, i removed the ari box snorkal and enlarged the whole on top of the airbox, i rejetted the biek (one size smaller on the main and pilots jets,
I then fitted some heavy .42 kg/mm Race Tech fork springs to stiffen up the front end, fitted soem pro taper se bars, and MR Motorcycles alloy mount kit to get rid of the rubber bar mounts, and last of all fitted some M402 bridgestone tyres and heavy duty tubes, total price for brand new bike and mods at full retail is approx $8200, still a cheap new race bike
If you have never seen the start of a Tawarewa 100 it is a pretty amazing affair, 320 riders sitting in 2 lines, bikes dead, then the shot gun goes and everyone is off at once, the first 3km winds though about 4 large maize paddocks in a mx style race before hitting farm land and into the bush proper,
The KDX fired up first kick off the line but got swolled by alot of bikes on the run to the first corner, i was pretty hesitant in corner one as this can often be a place for large pile ups, i reackon i was about 60-70th though the first corner, i used my mx skills to get a few places though the corners of the maize paddocks but were losing places on the straights to the bigger bike, (at this point i was crusing the advent of electric start 450's as a couple of years ago all these guys had to kick them a few times to get them going and you could get away on a nimble 2 strokes),
as i hit the bush this is where the real race starts, their are quick guys coming though and some slower guys holding up poeple lead to some big pile ups, i managed to aviod all these and make up alot of places in the 1st 20km, the KDX was great going down the hills and though the tight trees, but on the big hills it was losing to the four strokes, it wasn;t a problem if you had a run but when in traffic you had to wait untill the four stroke in front got on the gas to get on it yourself which wasn;t ideal,
any way at the end of the 1st lap i had got up to about 35th overall, i was third in my class (0-200 2 stroke) i stopped for fuel and some food, we have a pretty good pit setup and my cousin BRad had some dopwn to help, we fueled up and maid up a couple of places in the pits, both my work buddies had dnf'd at this stage, Kyle on his KX250 ran out of gas with 2km to go while right behiund me, and my business partner Craig had cooked his 250F after gettig a bad start and getting the radiators filled up with dirt and mud, this was quite a comman problem.
any way lap two was uneventfull, i kept passsing riders and no one got buy me, i was felling good and making up time, at the end of lap two i ptted again to find the guy who was 2nd in my class had a flat tyre and was changing it, this put me up to second and i was in good shape,
Lap 3 and i started catching the big four strokes, my plan wa working as these guys on big 450's looked stuffed and where just letting me by, but at the end of the 3rd lap i was cramping up pretty bad, but thier was no way i was going to give up, so another quick stop and i got out with a lap to go with a cheer from my mates who had already finished thier race (novice and veteran riders do 2 or 3 laps depending on their class)
so the 4th lap i got out, i got passed by a few quick guys coming though but also passed a few back for my self, this lap is pretty hard as you ride by yourself most the time and the track is pretty rough by this stage, and i was hurting bad, i could not stand up for long as i would cramp up but io could not sit down for long as i would cramp up then as well, any way, after 40km that seemed to take forever i came out on the last paddock with a guy on a crf450x right on my tail, he must of backed his luck to pass me on the straights, he got by me on 3 different straights but i got him back under brakes every time to beat him to the finish,
i ended up 25th out of 320 riders and 2nd in my class (0-200cc 2 Strokes)
in a time of 4.06.12
i was pretty happy after that, its tuesday morning (the race was staurday) and my legs still hurt, its a fun race to do but its pretty hard
overall was one by Damian King, from Peter Broxholme from Michael Cotter,
this is a pretty cool race to watch and next year will be the 30th running
cheers and till next time
Scott